CentaurMan

Hmmm, I don't see the resemblance. For one thing, the train is a slightly different shade of green. Great book!!!

Big Apple copy. Not 100% sure why I got this as it doesn't fit any of my core collecting areas, but I didn't have a Big Apple and I thought the cover was cool in a Chesler kind of way.

Cosmic Aeroplane, and 1st Catman. Spine's a little raggy, but it has beautiful pages.

Wow, I really love this book. I could stare at the colors on that cover all day. Good job!!

San Francisco copy:

Thanks for the encouragement. Your Centaur collection is stunning in both breadth and quality, and while quite a few of my books are beaters, it will be fun to at least have the complete set. And although it's true that the internet has made my task much easier than yours was, look on the bright side: Centaurs were ethereal myths to many of us, pre-web, and now there are a dozen or so people actively searching out these books, driving up demand (and prices). Given that your collection is totally done, watching the books finally get some of the respect they deserve amongst all of these new Centaur aficionados has got to be satisfying. I bought the first tranche of my collection (around 80 books) from Tim Cottrill at Bookery-Fantasy, and he seemed pretty tired of waiting for the "Centaur renaissance" to arrive. I don't know if it's here yet, but the books are certainly more popular now than they were even 5 years ago and the internet has had a huge hand it making it so.

Also, of the 20 books I have left, I'd classify 10 of them as legitimately brutal to find, very rare Centaurs that are in plenty of demand when (if) they come to market. The other 10 are just standard Centaurs that I haven't happened to find yet, but that I imagine will show up on eBay, Metro, Heritage, C-Link, etc., and when they do won't be in super high demand nor will cost an arm & a leg. Most Centaurs are in that latter group. That's why they're so much fun to collect. They're very hard to find but don't cost a ton, and acquiring them requires patience more than cash. The former group (including books like Keen Detective Funnies v1#10, Keen Komics #1, and Amazing Mystery Funnies v2#5, to name three I've eventually found) represents some of the toughest borderline mainstream comics you could ever hope to get your hands on. An awesome challenge, and quite enjoyable if you enjoy frustration. Prepare to spend some cash if you find one, too. King Comics #1-#12 and All-American Comics #2-#15 fit in the "really tough but cheap & fun" category. New Adventure/Adventure Comics #23-#40 fit in the "brutally competitive, expensive, and super challenging" category. Both have their merits.

I do have one of those. It's the only one I've ever seen in person. I'm down to 20 Centaurs/pre-Centaurs to complete the publisher. I've finished off Keen Detective Funnies and Funny Picture Stories, knocked out all of little runs except for two of the Little Giants, found the Liberty Scouts, Cocomalt, and C-M-O, bought the laundry giveaway, and gotten the Double Comics with the Masked Marvel cover. I'm not going to put out a big list with a countdown like Ian did (my lord, that was both annoying to us and ultimately very expensive for him), but speaking generally, here's what I'm missing: 2 Amazing Mystery Funnies, 1 Amazing-Man, 4 Funny Pages, the two Little Giants I quoted from Steve's post above, 5 Star Comics, 4 Star Rangers, and 2 Star Ranger Funnies. That's it. And internet or no, it's been a real challenge assembling the rest of the collection from scratch over the past 8 years.

Been off the boards for 5 days, just catching up. These two books are unbelievably rare. Incredibly scarce. I have to to this. Very, very impressive!!

I have a feeling that's going to change very shortly...

Very nice! That v2#4 is a book I've never seen before, and I own all but 21 of the Centaurs (& Centaur predecessors).

Not really. You could hold my pulp collection in one short box with some room to spare. Here are a few of my favorites:

Yeah, a glossy Comics Magazine should be tested for HGH. Keep 'em coming!

I might as well post this one too (the only time I'll show it on these boards, given how overexposed it's been previously). I'd been coveting this Church for quite a while and finally managed to get it from the recent buyer. I'm putting it away now.

Well, this one isn't a comic, per se, but I'm really happy with it:

I'm back in town for a few days, so I'll post a few of my recent pick ups. Hanging around the boards waiting for sacentaur to post some killer books. Church copy. Odd mixture of heavy shadows on the soldiers and no shadows on the boys, which makes the cover a little less than ideal, but I still like it.

Whoops, I hope I didn't come off as too critical in the prior post. I was just commenting on differences in collecting styles and didn't mean to pass judgment as much as it sounded like I was. You da man, Rick. (thumbs u Seriously!

It's definitely quite a bit tougher to collect books without sacrificing books to do it. The "churn & burn" strategy you implement can be a bit off-putting to those of us who move maybe 2% of our collection in a given year. But it is fun to see the scans.

a very broke machine! but thank you! How do you reconcile that comment with this thread: "Will I finally win an Action 1?" I have 3 months to sell stuff Renting books instead of collecting them.....I should try that. Nice Jumbo in particular. I've always liked that cover.

Yeah, you guys know I'm all about scarcity, but 'Tec 38 is simply too significant a book to pass up, factoring in the higher grade and the pedigree. It's not a "cool" book, but I'd have more confidence in that copy retaining its value.

Very nice. I love the shading. In retrospect, Hitler really kind of ruined the name Adolf for everyone else.

Dude. That's freaking impressive as hell. If you're going to spend $85k in a Heritage auction, you might as well make it count with top pedigrees and rare keys in grade. I gotta get me some of that koko kash.

Checking the boards for the first time in a week, I wanted to highlight this group shot. Speed Comics #4 and #6 in particular are just about impossible to find, incredibly scarce. Very impressive!!!

It's vastly tougher than #1. I score the first issue a "10" (one of the most common Centaurs of all) and the second issue a "24" (tougher than average for a Centaur, although a good distance from the toughest tier).

Really? I think he was the $1500 bidder on the book yesterday, and I think he bought a #37 recently as well (which went quite high given that it had like 6 inches of spine splits, although it had exceptional eye appeal). I'm not actively looking for stuff now (my job's been unbelievably busy), but I've kept some of my old eBay search e-mails and watched the recent Adventure sales. To be fair, all these record-breaking prices in U.S. dollars are much cheaper when viewed in foreign currencies. And as a guy holding a bunch of these books, I'm personally thrilled that there are now robust bidding wars for them. As there should be. Those books are super cool.